Issue 45 | Social Innovation’s Ecosystem in Argentina and Chile

The Social Innovations Journal is driven by the belief that the potential for good ideas to inspire more good ideas cannot be underestimated. We must ask the question whether this belief holds true and is it enough? Ashoka, the world’s oldest and most significant leader in the field of social entrepreneurship, asked a similar question and in doing so designed a study in 1998 to measure Ashoka Fellows’ impact and began to track independent replication, policy change, and persistence as approximate measures of systems change.

20 years later, the articles in this edition titled: “From Social Entrepreneurship to Everyone a Changemaker -- 40 Years of Social Innovation,” point to what’s next curated by Ashoka, plumb the data gathered in a more recent extensive study comprised of survey and interviews conducted by Ashoka over the past year and validated by LUISS University in Rome. The results paint a rich portrait of how and what it takes for social entrepreneurs, identified by Ashoka as changemakers, to thrive and succeed in rapidly changing contexts.

Diana Wells, Ashoka President, in the introductory and framing article, states that what matters most in determining a changemaker’s impact is not the size of one’s budget nor the number of those directly served. Rather measures of impact include: independent replication, public policy change, market change, and shifting mindsets, and can be measured, as seen in Ashoka’s image below, through direct service, scaled direct service, systems change, and/or framework change metrics. In other words, the most effective social entrepreneurs are those whose models help everyone be problem solvers. Ashoka defines itself through systems change and widespread framework change.

Returning to our question on whether the potential for good ideas to inspire more good ideas holds true and is it enough, we conclude that it is because it is stimulating the environment and context for all individuals to be problem solvers and changemakers. The journal challenges our academic and professional institutions to change not only the way they operate but the way they support young people and employees. People, despite their age or geographic location, need to know and feel what it means to co-lead teams and empower others to address a problem that they are experiencing. Peter Goldmark, former Publisher of the International Herald Tribune and former President of the Rockefeller Foundation once said, “Ashoka has shown how to invest successfully in pattern-breaking, powerful ideas and the people behind them -- and how to do so early when a little makes an enormous difference -- when hope can overcome cynicism, when tenacity can prevail over inertia. It has given us all the lessons in how to harness the most powerful energy in the world -- human talent -- to the task of adapting to the demands of the 21st century. We could not agree more.

Carol Sanford, in her most recent book: The Regenerative Business, agrees as she emphasizes that successful businesses today stop the practice of motivating people with incentives, rewards, and recognition, and shift to fostering initiative and self-management. She states that just important as technical skills, people need to develop a regenerative mindset defined by the fundamental characteristics of 1.) a desire to grow and improve, 2.) a motivation to engage and learn from others, and 3.) derive meaning from contributing to something larger than themselves.

We thank Diana Wells, Alessandro Valera, Sara Wilf, and Terry Donovan for the countless hours of curating and compiling their collective 40 years of experience, knowledge, and research into this edition which will be the driving force shaping how the global social sector approaches social innovation. We are inspired by Ashoka and because of their work we can imagine a world where Everyone is a Changemaker and where we all live in a Changemaker World.

We hope this edition will achieve our mission to inspire leaders and organizations to become changemakers; create the space for leaders to tap into their own creativity to innovate; empower leaders with the tools and knowledge to launch and grow their ideas; challenge leaders to become more empathetic; and transform everyone into a leader in a team of team’s world.

Yours in changemaking,

Nicholas Torres Tine Hansen-TurtonSIJ Co-Founders

Ashoka 2018 Article Summaries

Diana Wells

Ashoka launched the field of social entrepreneurship in 1980, and today it is the largest global association of social entrepreneurs. This article provides an overview for the journal issue that focuses on insights from Ashoka’s Global Impact Study of its network of social entrepreneurs with the following 10 articles ranging from regional, gender, sector, and subject matter analyses. Over the last decade, new technologies have enabled transformations in communications, media, and financial systems that have accelerated the pace of change and radically opened new means for citizen participation. In this context, social entrepreneurship has become a globally recognized practice, welcoming corporate, university, and government participation in the movement previously dominated by the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. This article summarizes pioneering insights of Ashoka that serve as the foundation for the field, and it updates our thinking on the impact of our Fellows based on evidence from our most comprehensive survey of our global network of 3,500 social entrepreneurs in 92 countries. These data confirm the core framework for Ashoka's current vision of realizing an Everyone a Changemaker world."

Sara Wilf

Since Ashoka first began electing Fellows in the early 1980s, our selection criteria and impact measurement metrics have mirrored Fellows’ single-minded focus on spreading an idea rather than achieving traditional private sector measures of “scale.” Based on this view, Ashoka first began measuring Fellows’ systems change in 1998. In this article we will use Ashoka’s systems change measures of independent replication, mindset shift, public policy change, and markets change, to share both a “big vision” picture of Fellows’ systems-level impact emerging from the study, and new insights we’re learning from a more in-depth analysis of Fellows’ systems change achievements.

Alessandro Valera

Ashoka’s previous effort in gauging the impact of its works focused mostly on the systemic change that its Fellows achieved five and 10 years after election. The aim of the 2018 Ashoka Fellows Global Study was to go further and enquire what role Ashoka played in accelerating that impact. This paper will present the evidence that has emerged from both the quantitative and qualitative side of the Global Study which confirms that a large majority of Fellows have found benefits from their association with Ashoka in terms of systems change thinking, leadership, reception of practical help, and connection to other fellows and Ashoka staff and third parties within the network. We will also present the evidence that working with Ashoka has made large number of fellows change their strategies while continuing to focus on the resolution of the social or environmental problem they had originally sought to solve.

Iman Bibars

Women in leadership positions across the globe and in all sectors have not reached the desired or deserved rates. In the for-profit sector, women constitute only 31 percent of leaders in the U.S. and approximately 18 percent in the UK. However, over 36 years and across 88 countries, 38 percent of leading social entrepreneurs elected by Ashoka have been women. Ashoka is the largest network of social entrepreneurs in the world, and with more than 1,200 leading women social entrepreneurs, marks the world’s largest resource for knowledge on women in social entrepreneurship. In this article, we leverage the compelling results of Ashoka’s 2018 Global Impact Study to argue that women in the social entrepreneurship field have excelled and have created impact that affects deep and lasting social change. However, we also highlight two very important aspects in the journey of women changemakers: first, that they face pervasive gender-specific challenges that can disrupt the achievement of their full potential. Secondly and more importantly, success and growth in social impact have been narrowly defined to the neglect of more encompassing descriptions, systematically excluding women social entrepreneurs from being widely acknowledged as successful by the mainstream. The insights within this article tell the story of how women’s leadership and success can and must be redefined from a gender perspective, transforming how women, and indeed all social entrepreneurs, are perceived in the field.

Claire Fallender and Ross Hall

In a world of rapid change, value comes from how people adapt to and guide positive change rather than from simply following rules or routines or from blind repetition. In this article, the authors look at the world’s largest network of top change leaders -- Ashoka Fellows -- to see what factors led them to become changemakers. Nearly half of these leading social entrepreneurs -- regardless of geography and gender --started changemaking (i.e. solving a problem they cared about) before the age of 20. They named their most important influences as their parents and teachers. The authors explore what implications this data might have both for the priorities that define our education systems as well as for the kinds of support parents and teachers need to guide young people to lead young: follow their passions, find creative solutions, create teams, and experience changemaking at an early age.

Michael Gordon and Sara Wilf

A number of research studies have examined the field of entrepreneurship in an effort to understand the social, environmental, and personal antecedents of entrepreneurship. While these studies provide key insights to understand the origins of entrepreneurship, they may be misleading in the context of social entrepreneurship because entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs have different primary motivations. Our interest in this article is in understanding if early experiences and behavior in childhood and adolescence are a factor in determining an individual’s journey as a social entrepreneur. With the 2018 Fellows study data, we can go a step further and attempt to use childhood experiences to predict which social entrepreneurs are likely to produce extraordinary social transformation by comparing the 2018 findings with data collected through Ashoka Changemaker’s Pulse study.

Dina H. Sherif and Maria Clara Pinheiro

When it comes to entrepreneurship and social change, the existence of enabling and supportive ecosystems is a key ingredient and catalyst. Organizations like Ashoka who are working to promote social entrepreneurship often find themselves asking the question: Have we succeeded in creating the kind of ecosystem necessary to support social entrepreneurs? While many of us working in the sector may constantly debate the concept of an ecosystems framework, one reality remains -- social innovators might be able to survive without an ecosystem of support, but it is highly unlikely that they will thrive. Vibrant ecosystems of support are necessary for truly transformative systems change. What ecosystems do to support social innovators is as significant as what social innovators do to transform ecosystems. This article will take a close look at what matters to Ashoka Fellows as a guide to building better and stronger ecosystems of support.

Reem Rahman

There’s a myth that still needs to be busted. It’s the idea that the main way that social change happens is with a hero, that change won’t happen until we have a charismatic leader to show the way. This article presents evidence for how collaborations -- and the collective leadership needed to achieve them -- have been central to the most effective pathways for social change, and deserving of greater recognition.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are of primary importance and help to concretely define the most urgent issues the world is facing as a whole, by analyzing the relative problems and bottlenecks, and promoting clearly identified avenues to solve them. With the most urgent issues at hand, it becomes pivotal for Ashoka and its network of social entrepreneurs to understand how far they have gone in tackling them, and which paths to walk to achieve a more pervasive social impact and scale.

In this article we offer a perspective on this point by the analysis of the “Alignment Issue-Mission” (AIM) index, that we created to measure the alignment between the most urgent issues faced by a country and the mission pursued by the Ashoka fellows operating in it. We computed the AIM index for all projects fellows undertake in each country and analyzed how its distribution changed over time between 2014 and 2017. Additionally, we also separated fellows’ projects in groups according to their technology familiarization, profit-seeking intentions, and community-building purposes, and checked the difference in the AIM index among these groups.

Arnaud Mourot

Today’s global issues have changed so dramatically in size and complexity that no single class of player can pretend to solve them alone. As a result, alliances have been forged to tackle major issues (access to vaccines, new forms of energy, and food) but very often in emergency contexts, and most of the time led by government or private donation programs. Yet in a world marked by an increasing rate of change, social problems have become so widespread and numerous that these classical alliances between international or local NGOs and international bodies are no longer sufficient. New types of approaches must be invented that leverage market dynamics to solve our world’s most entrenched and challenging issues. Ashoka Fellows, two-thirds of whom have partnered with for-profit companies, are leading the way on transformative alliances with the private sector. In this article we will share best practices and lessons from our Fellows on creating transformative change through strategic business alliances.

Irene Wu

Decades of international development has taught us many valuable lessons, including the importance of contextualizing problems and solutions. While the principle may seem obvious, much of the contextualization is deeply embedded in social norms and are thus highly implicit and not easily noticed. The field of social entrepreneurship is no different: while leading social entrepreneurs -- Ashoka Fellows -- across the world may share certain common traits, they too, are influenced by their respective societal rules and cultures. This highlights the necessity of applying contextual lenses when examining both the social solutions as well as the creators of these solutions.

Using the data collected from the most recent Ashoka Global Fellows Survey, we illustrate the abovementioned point with a focus on the East and Southeast Asia regions. Although East and Southeast Asia vary in their modern historical trajectories, significant similarities remain in much of their cultural imprint including conformity and compliance, deference to social hierarchy, and traditional conservatism. These unique characteristics of East and Southeast Asian societies have undoubtedly casted various degrees of influence on social entrepreneurs from these regions, both in terms of their own experience in changemaking and informing the strategy with which they approach systems and framework change.

To understand Fellows’ own personal journeys of changemaking, we look at the age at which Fellows joined someone else's initiative to create a solution to a social problem as well as the age at which they personally took the initiative to create a solution to a social problem. To explore youth-related strategies Fellows utilize to scale their work, we look at the percentage of Fellows who put young people (0-18) in charge of leading initiatives/projects within their organizations, the percentage of Fellows who encourage young people (0-18) to create independent initiatives to spread or scale their work, and the percentage of Fellows whose ideas focus on influencing societal mindsets/cultural norms.

Kenny Clewett

Systems change includes impacting public policy. This is why a key metric to measure Ashoka Fellows’ success is how they have impacted public policy. As the world becomes more globally connected and complex, we need models that help social innovators impact public policy more quickly, deeply, and collectively. This article outlines such a model in the area of migration, integration, and refugee movements in Europe and how we foresee this kind of work spreading to other sectors across the globe.

The Social Innovations Journal is driven by the belief that the potential for good ideas to inspire more good ideas cannot be underestimated. The value that social sector partnerships, entrepreneurs, and innovators bring to local communities and regions across the nation cannot be underestimated.

We believe one way to harness and advance this energy is through curating REGIONAL SOCIAL INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS by sourcing/publishing regional social innovations, social enterprises, and public private partnerships. For this reason, The Social Innovations Journal has joined forces with Impact Hub Seattle, Client Accelerator for Conscious Entrepreneurs, Social Venture Partners Seattle, Seattle Impact Investing Group, City of Seattle Innovation and Performance, and Fledge to publish a Special Edition highlighting Greater Seattle’s SOCIAL INNOVATION, SOCIAL ENTERPRISES, AND PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS. This edition showcases Greater Seattle’s most innovative solutions to solve society’s toughest problems.

This issue holds special relevance related to how two cities can share knowledge as it comes on the heel’s of a symposium held last month that included an incredibly diverse group of 145 cross-sector Philadelphia leaders who traveled to Seattle for the Economy League’s Greater Philadelphia Leadership Exchange (aka “GPLEX”), to study how the Emerald City works, moves, lives, thrives -- and how it deals with major challenges. Seattle has incredible wealth and a political system and culture conducive to collaborating with other communities to solve public problems. We applaud Seattle’s collective work that together is developing a pragmatic approach that finds points of common ground and leverages assets to advance social impact.

Demonstrating the value of sharing good ideas to inspire more good ideas we look at some of the benefits provided to Philadelphia leaders.

“You know what’s the most important thing to me? Data. Data I did not have before. I am more informed.” – David Grasso, CEO Grasso Holdings

"I’ve walked away energized and determined to see how I can be part of the solutions that may enable us to apply some of the lessons observed into lessons learned and acted upon." – Michael Mittleman, President, Salus University

Read more in the introductory article by Jeff Hornstein of Greater Philadelphia Economy League and Vanessa Briggs of Brandywine Community Health Foundation.

Across the globe, and in Seattle, there has been a rapid rise in the number of social sector innovators and entrepreneurs who want to find innovative ways to solve or “move the needle” on society’s problems, and they are increasingly deploying the methods of business and private capital if that helps them to do so. They include people in the social sector who can now tap the markets for finance in addition to seeking grants from donors, and philanthropists who are willing to fund innovative ideas and businesses driven by social entrepreneurs and social sector organizations if they offer a greater likelihood of achieving the social impact they desire. The force capable of driving a social sector revolution is Seattle’s social innovation, enterprise, and partnerships that harness innovation, entrepreneurship, partnerships and capital to power social impact.

We hope this edition (article summaries are below) will achieve our mission to inspire leaders and organizations to dream; create the space for leaders to tap into their own creativity to innovate; endow leaders with the tools and knowledge to launch and grow their ideas; challenge leaders to become better versions of themselves; and transform leaders and their companies.

Yours in innovation,

Nicholas Torres Tine Hansen-TurtonSIJ Co-Founders

“Greater Seattle's Social Innovation, Social Enterprises, and Public/Private Partnerships”

Article Summaries

Nate Bochsler, JD

Too often the successful people in America are caught in a never-ending rat race where no matter how much they acquire, they are no happier. We can shift them and consequently a large segment of the population if they realize they can be happier if they start to connect to humanity rather than compare. Through self-compassion and loving kindness meditation humanity will start to connect rather than compare as is the current case through our damaged lens of self-esteem. By taking a unique approach to transforming our society by addressing the needs of the successful rather than the unsuccessful we can impact larger numbers more quickly.

William Chen, ECOSS

Immigrants and refugees make up almost 20% of Seattle’s population. Yet these communities are some of the most underserved by environmental initiatives. Long-time Seattle residents may intuitively understand the safety of their drinking water or where to find information on hiking. But language, cultural and lifestyle differences prevent immigrants and refugees from accessing the same public services, education and opportunities. ECOSS’ New Arrivals program changes this dynamic via community-centered multicultural outreach. We build trust with communities by engaging them in their language and respecting their diversity. We build effective partnerships with public and private agencies that are committed to environmental justice and equity. And we empower immigrant and refugee communities to lead their own unique outdoors trips, connect with their environment and become environmentally resilient.

Anna Choi

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a staggering 92 percent of U.S. businesses are microbusinesses -- defined as a business with one to five employees, counting the owner.

Despite this vast majority, many investors assume that all startups want to be the next household brand. Therefore, funding is required to build and hire the right team to eventually exit the business with a sale, acquisition, or initial public offering, and 10x the investor’s return. This is where the current funding paradigm falls short.

Yet, Microbusinesses (which studies show are mostly comprised of young people, women, and/or minorities) often don’t want to exit. They may not even want a team. They want the income and freedom that allows them to spend time with their family or travel. They are far away from the typical startup founder spending hours and hours hustling to make the next do-or-die round of funding.

Laura Clise, Founder & CEO, Intentionalist

We are all familiar with the link between consumer spending and the health of the economy, but what role might consumer spending play toward a more inclusive economy? Rapid growth and gentrification in cities from New York, to San Francisco, to Seattle and beyond have given rise to questions regarding the extent to which rising economic prosperity is or is not equitable and inclusive. In the exploration of how to facilitate more inclusive economic growth, consumer spending is an underleveraged potential driver due to the opacity consumers face when trying to decipher who benefits from the money they spend. Intentionalist is a social enterprise technology startup working to bridge the gap between the growing number of consumers who want to support the diverse local businesses that shape our communities and their ability to easily find and support them.

Mark Horoszowski, co-founder & CEO, MovingWorlds.org

In the past five years there has been a firestorm against “voluntourists” as report after report demonstrates that when people pay to volunteer their skills overseas, they often create more harm than good. This is not only true for volunteering, but really, for much of philanthropy. While many backed away from voluntourism to avoid the bad press, our startup social enterprise leaned into this issue, analyzing every stage of the process: How do you find organizations that actually want volunteers? How do you filter organizations that will truly benefit from hosting volunteers? How do you select volunteers with the right know-how and motivations? How do you ensure that matches turn into productive relationships? How do prepare both parties for these cross-cultural experiences? How do you track impact so you can keep improving the way you match, prepare, and support both parties?

Suzie Housley, Ph.D., StormSensor, Inc.

Combined sewage systems (CSSs), in which rain and sanitary sewage are mixed together and discharged into local waters, are one of the leading sources of water pollution in the United States. The sources of this pollution are, to a large extent, controlled—and contributed—by the communities that surround the waters to which their sewage is released. All communities with CSSs must incorporate a form of public participation in their long-term control plans in an effort to mitigate their impact. Ideally, public participation could evolve from traditional, passive sharing of information to active community engagement with a measurable reduction in water pollution. StormSensor, a Seattle-based tech startup, proposes that more active solutions are possible if the current gap in empirical data can be filled in a way that is cost effective, efficient, and easy for communities of all sizes to adapt.

David Uhl, MPA

More people are dying of drug overdose than died of AIDS at the height of that epidemic, over 72,000 in 2017. Prevention, treatment and recovery are three legs of the same stool to reduce this epidemic. The third leg, especially communities of recovery support, provides hope to reverse this epidemic and help individuals build lives they are excited about living. Founded in 2004 in Seattle, the Recovery Café model is an effective way to deliver community based recovery support that is different other recovery centers or fellowship halls. Using a Membership approach, this person-centered recovery oriented system of care supports a person as they establish a healthy life and continues to provide the stability they need to thrive. Since 2016, the Recovery Café model has spread to 11 cities in 5 states and DC with more groups working to bring this healing model to their communities.

As we continue sharing the tools and knowledge of social innovations across the globe, we are honored to present this edition titled: Social Innovation’s Ecosystem in Mexico. We’d like to thank and recognize the Center for High Impact Social Innovation (CISAI) for their partnership that made this edition possible. CISAI, as with many international organizations, is the result of academic and research institutions joining forces with public institutions. CISAI seeks to contribute to social justice through social innovation and consolidation of the social innovation ecosystem. CISAI defines innovation within the context provided by Phills and Deiglmeier1 of the Stanford Business School as a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.

In this edition, the reader will find initiatives promoted by civil society organizations, social enterprises, start-ups, public agencies, and universities with a great diversity of topics. We encourage you to read the introduction articleto this edition as it provides a macro context to the social innovations movement within Mexico.

In every developing social innovations ecosystem we find social innovators, those individuals, groups, collectives, start-ups, civic communities, that generate, share, and promote new ideas and ways of doing and thinking. These social innovators, despite institutional, policy, or societal barriers, continue to press for change on behalf of the greater society. Yet, many of these social innovators experience limited success because fertile ground for their ideas to take root doesn’t yet exist.

To facilitate greater progress, defined as more social innovation ideas taking root, regional leaders are investing in the development of ecosystems as they realize that working in isolation will not help social innovation take hold. The emerging theory, based upon our recent ecosystem publications, is that through investment in strong cross sector (government, private, not-for-profit) ecosystems, social innovation ideas find rich soil to grow. To accomplish cross sector ecosystem development regions are investing in the creation of communities where key players can network in person and utilize technology-connecting platforms. This trend recognizes the value of social innovators and is creating avenues for individuals to connect within all levels of public, private, and not-for-profit institutions. We witnessed this trend in the Asia edition and see it confirmed in the Mexico edition.

At the Social Innovations Journal, we believe the potential of good ideas to inspire more good ideas cannot be underestimated. As we attempted to focus this edition on Mexico’s social innovations we learned that every obstacle we encountered lost its power in the face of the irrepressible force of shared knowledge and ideas, and resulted, organically, with good ideas finding their own way to the surface to accomplish social impact and inspire more good ideas.

The recently published book by Sondra Myers titled, “The People's Choice: Public Education and American Democracy,” makes it very clear that “public schools will educate nine out of 10 American students so there is no choice but to invest in them if we are to prepare informed and engaged citizens to shape the destiny of our nation.” As a journal focused on innovation, we urge all education stakeholders to work in partnership with parents to ensure that all of our children have their educational needs met.

This edition provides schools and educational institutions with a repository of ideas, models, and knowledge to both engage and partner with students’ parents and families. Hopefully, this edition inspires leaders of schools and educational institutions to engage parents as partners and educated consumers, as many consider family engagement the most critical component to a students' academic success.

Readers of this edition will better understand how students, parents, and educators can become partners in co-constructing the educational experience; the importance of community oversight in the delivery of services to students with special needs; the perspective of immigrant students in public education; the need for grief education in our schools to support our students and their families; how to effectively engage parents of students who are deaf or hearing impaired; how to cultivate social and intellectual capital; and how unwavering determination, perseverance, and courage are essential to overcoming odds and achieving success. Finally, this edition provides a snapshot of parent engagement innovations occurring internationally and nationally.

We hope as you read the articles (summaries below) you gain a sense of the promise and future of our evolving Educational Sector and the critical role parents fulfill in supporting the success of their children academically, socially, emotionally, and eventually, as contributors to society.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Torres CEO/Co-Founder

Article Summaries

This article focuses on rethinking what we mean by “engagement,” to lead us to evaluating the roles of “producer” and “consumer” in education. Through the author’s guidance we focus on how “reciprocal engagement” can in turn, lead us to think of education as a “platform” in which the role of “consumer” and “producer” can shift among students, parents, and educators. This ultimately will enable us to not think of “buy-in” and instead begin to think about the ways in which students, parents, and educators can become partners in co-constructing the educational experience of each, respectively.

As in the era of institutionalization, the current service system providing community-based supports for individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) has become increasingly self-serving and financially top heavy. Currently, the bulk of the funding, despite the current needs-based approach to services, ends up supporting and perpetuating the service delivery system. The support for individuals at a direct needs level appears to have been minimized with the growth of the provider structure. The corporate culture associated with the needs-based community support structure appears to have maintained the control and choices originally meant to go to the individuals and their families. In addition, the services that are provided are unequally distributed based on eligibility standards, level of needs, yearly legislative budgets, and government priority lists. This article is proposing the need for the development of a knowledgeable, informed citizenry to act as a conflict free and socially inclusive systemic watchdog group. The primary mission of this group would be the redirection and equalization of community supports and services to better service and empower all individuals with ID directly, and/or through natural/family and community supports.

Alejandro Gibes de Gac is the CEO and Founder of Springboard Collaborative. As the son of immigrants who sacrificed everything to give him educational opportunities, Alejandro learned firsthand the potential in parent engagement. Amanda Hamilton Roos is an education consultant specializing in family engagement and literacy. As an experienced teacher and parent of three, she knows the power of parental love from both sides of the classroom door.

To help all elementary aged students read on grade-level, Springboard Collaborative builds on an underutilized and undervalued natural resource in education – namely, the parents and families of our students -- with promising results. Springboard Collaborative creates successful partnerships with families by: acknowledging and valuing the unique position that families hold in the life of a child; explicitly teaching literacy skills to all families; providing resources; and training teachers and leaders to work with families. By maintaining high standards, Springboard Collaborative leverages strong family partnerships in three different offerings: Springboard Summer, Springboard Afterschool, and Springboard Schoolyear. The success of these initiatives is not confined to their participants. They have seen firsthand how school communities begin to transform as families share resources and knowledge with one another.

Parent Reading Coach™ offers an evidence-informed, virtual training, and early literacy platform for students. The program is both accessible and affordable, and is targeted directly towards parents and caregivers. Research shows that this type of learning system offers promising, new ways of learning that could transform those currently labeled as “non-academics” into flourishing, confident self-learners. Ultimately, Parent Reading Coach™ envisions a world in which all children are literate. This model also pushes for motivated teachers to acquire early literacy training, which is often excluded from their higher education degrees. Parent Reading Coach™ might not ensure literacy for everyone, but it does provide the essential knowledge and tools necessary to eliminate the hopelessness that many parents experience when their child does not fit into the traditional educational system.

Lanzando Líderes (Launching Leaders) is an afterschool program for high school students in South Philadelphia’s Latino immigrant community that aims to advance the educational attainment of youth through leadership development, personalized academic support, college mentoring, and parent engagement. Working in partnership with Puentes de Salud (Bridges to Health), a community-based health and wellness center, they have developed a culturally grounded program model that has made parent engagement and empowerment a priority. Their work in the community acknowledges and seeks to address the various issues that limit the engagement of immigrant parents in their children's education. In the past year, Lanzando Lideres has listened, sought feedback, and consciously reflected on their abilities as practitioners to foster deeper, more meaningful involvement of parents in their children’s educational success. In sharing their journey as practitioners, their model, and reflections, they hope to inform community members, social entrepreneurs, and policymakers interested in promoting immigrant parent engagement in various settings.

Education is LiberationQuibila A. Divine, M. Ed; EE, ECE/President of The Educational Advocates Reaching Today's Hardworking Students, Inc. (EARTHS) and Advisor to PARENT POWER (What Will You Do With Yours?)

This article provides a list of ten things that administrators, educators, education advocates, and policymakers should focus on to ensure that all children are provided with equal access to education by ensuring that their families are welcomed and actively engaged in their children's learning. It questions the effective use of trillions of Title I dollars that have been distributed to school districts and schools for the purpose of eliminating academic achievement gaps for low-income, low performing students, while highlighting the discriminatory practices of some education advocates and policymakers, and makes the point that all children can learn when caring adults work together to teach them.

Parenthood is a challenging and rewarding experience. Becoming a parent of a child with special needs both enhances these experiences and presents unique circumstances. A common thread among parents is the desire to adequately provide for their children so they can achieve their maximum potential, possess self-esteem, and enjoy meaningful accomplishments throughout their lives. For parents of loved ones with special needs, obstacles to achieving such goals exist at both the family level and that of the greater community and society. Acknowledging, understanding, and adequately preparing to manage these challenges empowers parents as caregivers, while allowing their loved ones the best chance possible to obtain and maintain the quality of life envisioned.

One hundred percent of students will grieve and face adversity. Very few students, though likely none, receive education on this complex and contradictory emotional response that permeates life. Grief is a response to adversity and therefore the catalyst of many risk factors. However, supportive and responsive environments mitigate the majority of risks, thereby requiring grief education will promote prevention and emotional agility in students. Schools are chief among the critical places that influence a child’s outcomes and ability to adapt. In order to promote more resilient environments, Good Grief, Inc. is mobilizing its greatest ambassadors -- grieving parents -- to change a dysfunctional culture and promote its resilience curriculum.

There is a growing body of research that shows correlation between family engagement and enhanced student outcomes. Federal legislation regulating special education (notably IDEA, 2004 and ESSA, 2015) has placed an increasing emphasis on family engagement with each iteration. Furthermore, it is commonly understood that family engagement is crucial when a child has a hearing impairment. Recognizing that connection, this study explores the practices that parents of children who are deaf or hearing impaired perceive as facilitative of, or obstacles to, engagement in the special education process. The intent of this research was to spotlight strategies to enhance their deployment among stakeholders in special education. Findings of this study represent a call to action to promote transformational leadership; necessitating the investment of time, resources, and energy that focus on family engagement as the foundational component of all educational endeavors.

This article brings awareness to the necessity of treating parents as consumers and investors in the educational and human services realms, the services/resources which are provided for quality of life, while giving suggestions for moving from the traditional structure of both systems to a more parent/family-centered approach to produce better outcomes. Data from research journals is utilized to provide different perspectives on the needed support to treat parents (specifically those who are low-literate/at-risk) as consumers, and not just as assigned cases, by collaborating with them in decision-making to gain a full understanding of the families being served. This article also seeks to bring a fresh perspective to how both education and human services can establish a unified purpose through cooperative efforts to address all aspects of the needs and wants of their consumers (parents) and to establish solid and productive relationships with families.

In 2010, shortly after being sworn in as the Governor of the State of New Jersey, Chris Christie decided he would aggressively pursue a program that would affect close to 1,000 of New Jersey’s developmentally disabled residents. While some families perhaps welcomed the relocation news, most did not; and the majority of families who would be affected opposed it immediately. They realized that the resulting disruption to their loved ones’ lives caused by relocation would be profound. Organizing hundreds of families across New Jersey (and, in a handful of cases, other states, due to family relocations over the years) to oppose the program was not easily accomplished. Yet, in attaining a long-sought after victory, the families learned an invaluable lesson: advocacy works but unwavering determination, perseverance, and courage are essential to its success.

This article outlines the transformative power of having everyone at a school understand and endorse family engagement as a core strategy. The content is designed to motivate school and school district leaders to consider implementing research-based family engagement practices that create inclusive and diversity-responsive relationships and collaborations within, among, and between families, teachers, school/district administrators, and other school personnel. This type of family engagement program builds effective communication bridges with families by cultivating their social and intellectual capital bringing family engagement to a higher level. Through a well-designed family engagement program, schools ensure families gain access to the human and cultural capital they need to fully participate in the school’s educational program with their children. Families learn of their role in reinforcing their children’s learning and of the importance of becoming partners in the schools’ reform efforts to ensure their children’s academic success.

Homelessness and housing instability greatly impact a student’s ability to stay in school and achieve educational goals. The urgency of this problem motivated The Night Ministry to partner with three other local organizations -- Empower to Succeed (an independent nonprofit of Old St. Patrick’s Church), North Lawndale College Preparatory High School, and Youth Outreach Services -- to launch Phoenix Hall last year. Phoenix Hall is an innovative new residence for high school students experiencing housing instability in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. It is one of the first housing programs in the country, and the first in Chicago, designed to improve educational outcomes by providing housing for homeless students in a particular high school. This project has already raised awareness of housing instability faced by high school students, as well as understanding of its complex causes. Partnership with families as well as the school is integral to the success of Phoenix Hall. Providing safe, structured housing to the student, while working with the entire family toward stabilization and reunification, if possible, gives the student the best chance for successful educational outcomes, including graduation. The program’s impact is measured at the student and family levels, as well as school and community levels. It is the intention of Phoenix Hall to serve as a model for student housing in the community and beyond.

Recognition and Inclusion of the Native Communities of ArgentinaDr. Germán Pollitzer

In Argentina today, multiple cultures and social realities coexist in a complex context in which urban majorities ignore the existence of ancestral minorities. These ancestral minorities find themselves excluded from most basic rights. The reality of the haves vs. the have nots is also reflected in the differences between the large cities and the remote areas, all further exacerbating the experience of the Native people.

The Native communities who inhabited these territories before Argentina´s birth as a nation, especially on the northern region and in Patagonia, are still not fully integrated into the Republic. With some individuals who have obtained title deeds for their land and are no longer besieged by neighboring landowners, and others who are still harassed and denied basic rights. Yet, it remains a fact that Argentinian society, and the nation itself, still owes a huge debt to these communities. This article advocates for policies that will facilitate and promote full-integration of the Native communities by tapping into the nation’s identity as both multi-ethnic and multi-cultural.

Right now, two out of three Philadelphia school children enter the 4th grade unable to read at grade level, a critical milestone in the development of any child. Those failing to meet it are more likely to stay and even fall further behind in future grades, as classroom instruction shifts quickly from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn. Low achievement. School dropout. Joblessness. Research shows clear correlations between these and failing to read by 4th. We as a city must do better. And now there are clear signs we are doing just that.

With Philadelphia’s youngest readers posting standardized reading scores that outpace state gains for the first time, we’re showing what’s possible when we come together and embrace our collective responsibility to give children their best shot at success. This article explores the success of the citywide Read by 4th coalition, convened and managed by the Free Library of Philadelphia, founded on the principle of shared responsibility.

Building the Network: The Impact of Sparking Civic Engagement in Low-Income CommunitiesEric Leslie, founder and lead organizer of Union Capital Boston

We know social capital and civic engagement are powerful drivers of opportunity and upward mobility. This article explores how we can build these networks in low-income communities using tools in our world today.

As a long-standing parenting education organization, Families First is always looking to innovate in order to improve its service delivery. Thus, it recently transformed its program model to provide three times more hours of support for each participating parent. While necessary to accomplish the intended outcomes of stronger parent-child relationships and increased parental access to social supports, this shift to longer-term programming requires a greater commitment from parents who are facing poverty and related stressors. This creates additional pressures on parent recruitment and retention strategies. In collaboration with Social Venture Partners, Boston’s expert consultants, Families First’s staff has addressed the undeniable challenge of retention head-on by incorporating the unique voices and leadership of parent participants. The comprehensive five-tiered strategy described in this article is already showing promising recruitment and retention results as parental needs and experiences are assessed throughout the program.

In coordination with The Network: Towards Unity for Health (The Network) 2018 Conference, we are excited to launch this edition titled “Social Innovations in Community Empowerment for Health Across the Globe.”

The Social Innovations Journal is driven by the belief that “the potential for good ideas to inspire more good ideas cannot be underestimated,” this aligns perfectly with The Network’s mission to foster equitable, community-oriented health services. Through education, research, and policies The Network is bringing together innovative health care organizations, educational institutions, and individuals from around the world in their shared commitment to improving the health of their respective communities.

The current need for innovation in community empowerment for health is evident, and though difficult, a path forward has been laid out. By creating spaces of encounter for academia, state, the private sector, and civil society the next steps towards more sustainable, innovative models and necessary policy adoptions are crystal clear.

Bill Burdick, Vice President for Education at FAIMER, captured the essence and importance of this edition by stating, “Empowerment implies listening and shared decision-making with an emphasis on communication and partnership, without which empowerment is not possible.”

We hope you read these articles (summarized below) to gain a greater sense of the promise of community empowerment for health initiatives across the globe. These articles cover topics including how community members are generating their own solutions to complex medical and psychosocial challenges; strategies for community-based participatory research; embracing cultural and ethnic diversity in mainstream health advances; developing strategies to create sustainable partnerships among university, local, and global communities to improve the health of populations through engagement and entrepreneurial collaboration; as well as strategies to adapt a government’s general practitioner system to meet the diverse and complex health needs of its communities.

We’d like to extend a special thank you to FAIMER for their collaboration on this edition and for providing access to the amazing individuals, initiatives, and ideas that will be presented at the 2018 TUFH Conference.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Torres Tine Hansen-TurtonSIJ Co-Founders

William BurdickVice President for EducationFAIMER

“Social Innovations in Community Empowerment for Health Across the Globe”

Article Summaries

Maryellen D. Brisbois PhD, RN PHCNS-BC University of Massachusetts Dartmouth College of Nursing

Challenges in reaching the most vulnerable in the community were identified at collaborative community forums held in Southeast Massachusetts, United States (US) in 2014 with University of Massachusetts

Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth) leaders, social service agencies and providers of healthcare services. The barriers to accessing care and health maintenance among this aggregate were associated with lack of transportation, transient status, and being uninsured or underinsured. UMass Dartmouth College of Nursing students and faculty created a Global Health Collaborative (GHC) university student club to identify the vulnerable footprint in Fall River and New Bedford, and neighborhoods adjacent to UMass Dartmouth.

The mission was to create sustainable partnerships among the colleges in the university, local community, and global community to improve the health of populations through engagement and entrepreneurial collaboration. The purpose of the Collaborative was to develop global partnerships, increase global awareness of health-related issues, establish intercultural relationships, deliver culturally competent care to diverse populations, and respect the beliefs, values, cultures, religions, and practices of the populations the College collaborates with.

Adolescents with unwanted advanced pregnancies who seek a late-term abortion are in danger of getting killed and the babies are in danger of dying in utero, immediately after birth, or shortly after during infancy. Complications from unsafe interventions remain a major public health issue globally. Social responsiveness can help mothers with unwanted advanced pregnancy. Girls who reported abortions for pregnancy beyond 20 weeks (India’s abortion law) were counseled, offered medical, social, and financial help to safely deliver and legally surrender their baby to the Babies’ Home under the legal system. It was a long journey full of obstacles until a system of local legal adoption was finally established. Over three decades 547 girls were helped, with the youngest only 12 years of age. Of the girls helped, 147 were victims of rape who were in consensual relationships but under 18 and unable to give consent under Indian law, while 26 girls were victims of sexual assaults. In addition, abandoned babies were brought in by police from temples, railways, hospitals, and farms. The mission of preventing deaths and disabilities, honor killings, and dangerous interventions to terminate unwanted pregnancies is enabling young women to lead normal lives and providing a means of safe survival for babies who are being welcomed with open arms by parents across globe.

Establishing a general practitioners’ system is a significant and difficult point of medical reform in China. The key problem of establishing a general practitioners’ system is that qualified general practitioners who have undergone the standardized training will be the gatekeepers of health. Presently, the general practitioners in China are short-handed and the training and employment of general practitioners are out of line. This will cause an impasse in the establishment of a general practitioner system. There are many reasons for the impasse, but this paper argues that the core reason is the traditional pattern of interests is solidified and the new pattern of interests has not been established. The authors suggest that the government in the process of pushing grading diagnosis and treatment, could be refactoring the pattern of interests via fusion between Internet and medicine based on “Internet +” to create a win-win situation, in order to push the establishment of a general practitioner system.

Yassein Elhussein, 4th year medical student at University of Gezira-faculty of Medicine, Sudan

This project was designed in an integrated approach, which helps a lot in project success and the huge improvement of community health. The project works because it was achieved through applying the primary health care concepts in community lead initiatives and community empowerment, it also enhanced the role of the multi-sectorial approach in project success. The project was implemented using a clear methodology and strategic planning and the community was involved in all stages of the project: selection, planning, implementation, supervision, monitoring, and evaluation. The public has been mobilized and empowered by strengthening and encouraging its involvement in solving its various problems, while also enhancing the role of sector integration in the success of the project and creation of relationships between different institutions and society. It demonstrated that health promotion and disease prevention have a role in socioeconomic development and can also solve the village’s basic problems. This article reflects a great effort by medical students, it also serves as a model of community empowerment for health promotion. Students have an impact on community health as they help lead community initiatives towards health promotion throughout different programs, projects, and opportunities.

Dr. Lorenza Fluks, Chief Researcher in the Human and Social Development Research Program at Human Sciences Research Council and Professor Heidi Van Rooyen, Executive Director in the Human and Social Development Research Program at the Human Sciences Research Council

Community-based participatory research approaches can be useful for stimulating social innovation. Such approaches involve community members at various phases of the research process and have several positive outcomes for the research and communities. This paper discusses the community mobilization approaches that are at the heart of research on HIV and related issues conducted in a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We present affirmation and acknowledgement as an innovative and empowering strategy in community mobilization, as it affirms community members’ voices, dignity, and agency concerning issues that affect their lives.

Dr. Christine Gibson, MD FCFP MMedEd, University of Calgary Department of Family Medicine

Social innovation in the context of a community health center that serves marginalized populations can achieve agency and empowerment of community members. Through a social innovation lab process at The Solutions Studio, a physician of The Alex Community Health Centre in Canada has launched a series of such processes. Community members with specific lived experiences are invited to generate solutions to their own complex medical and psychosocial challenges.

La Posta las Lila is the promotion project developed by a private university that for more than 10 years has become a primary care center where the community actively learns, develops, and improves their quality of life. The university has built a model of social commitment that arises from its institutional mission.

Infections have had a compelling act in human history with one of the predominance of infectious diseases being the unpredictable nature they tend towards and the potential for an explosive effect. According to experiences from pandemics such as the 2009 H1N1 influenza they presented a public health emergency, but most importantly exposed a couple of deficiencies and vulnerabilities in not only the global approach to the outbreak, but also the national and local public health capacities. It is for this reason that RockHealth Integrated Care Org. (RICO) Epidemiology-Informed Resource Allocation (EIRA) Model to Strengthening Primary Health Care and Response to Communicable Disease Epidemics was designed. Through the RICO EIRA model, epidemiological data provides insight and intelligence to improve the response and preparedness beyond planning. Such data, when available at local health facilities, helps in improving the primary health care system and strengthening an evidence-based response (Brownstein JS et al, 2).

“The Influence of Physical Growth and Related Factors in Attaining Age of Menarche” was a cross-sectional study of 227 rural school going girls. It was found that there was prevalence of 37 percent of early onset of menarche with physical parameters like weight, waist circumference, and BMI having a significant impact on the early onset of menarche. Time spent using computers and watching television had an even more significant impact on girls attaining early onset of menarche due to a sedentary life style. This article’s purpose is to initiate efforts to change life style activities to promote a healthier life for girls entering adolescence.

Dede Atsu Kobla Latey, final year medical student, University of Ghana School of Medicine and Dentistry and Founder, MindIT Mental Health Service.

Challenges in reaching the most vulnerable of the community were identified at collaborative community forums held in Southeast Massachusetts, United States (U.S.) in 2014 with University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth) leaders, social service agencies, and providers of healthcare services. The barriers to accessing care and health maintenance among this aggregate were associated with lack of transportation, transient status, and being uninsured or underinsured. UMass Dartmouth College of Nursing students and faculty created a Global Health Collaborative (GHC) university student club to identify the vulnerable footprint in Fall River and New Bedford, and neighborhoods adjacent to UMass Dartmouth. The mission was to create sustainable partnerships among the colleges in the university and the local and global community to improve the health of populations through engagement and entrepreneurial collaboration. The purpose of the collaborative was to develop global partnerships, increase global awareness of health-related issues, establish intercultural relationships, deliver culturally competent care to diverse populations, and respect the beliefs, values, cultures, religions, and practices of the populations the College collaborates with.

Practice Education is a core component in the training of healthcare professionals, with fieldwork providing important opportunities to consolidate curriculum-based teaching through the integration of theory with practice. The School of Allied Health (SAH) in the University of Limerick (UL), has a long history of engagement in innovative community-based student placements; developed to expand placement capacity and offer a different learning opportunity to students. Research conducted by SAH demonstrates that the outcomes of these collaborative fieldwork placements had been predominantly positive, but host organizations also requested the establishment of a more sustainable model of university engagement with services and communities. Responding to this call, the Occupational Therapy Practice Education Team (OT PET) engaged in an extensive process of face-to-face collaboration to map community need and identify opportunities for sustainable engagement through on-going student fieldwork placements. On completion, it was identified that a funded community-based student-led clinic was an optimal means of meeting the needs of all stakeholders and maintaining a continual HEI presence in the local regeneration areas of Limerick City.

Faith Ubi Okoi

This article is centered on the plight of street children and how they can be salvaged from the street through the support of a foundation providing clothing, vocational training, and medical services to help them achieve a better quality of life and better tomorrow today.

The Global Sharing-Local Caring project emerged from the dynamics of specialized training in community nursing between the University of the Azores (UAc), Portugal, and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth), United States (U.S.). Considering today’s globally minded health care environment and the increased importance of nurses' knowledge and skills to meaningfully interact with people from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds, this project represents a unique learning opportunity that allows improved health benefits at the local level and advancements in the provision of nursing care in both regions involved.

Invasive medical procedures induce pain and fear in children. Although distraction reduces pain, certain types of distraction may be more effective, so comparison becomes important. The objectives of the study were to assess the effectiveness of listening to music (passive) compared to interactive play with an electronic toy (active) for pain relief [rated on FACES Wong Baker scale (WBS)] and decreasing fear [scored on Children’s Fear Scale (CFS)] in children undergoing venous cannulation in the pediatric ward of MOSC MCH. The methods employed in the study included parallel group, single blinded, and a randomized controlled trial were undertaken on children between the ages of two to seven years admitted to the pediatric ward of MOSC MCH. This article covers the process of the study, the results and the conclusion that active distraction relieves pain more effectively, while both active and passive distractions reduce the associated fear equally. Therefore, these methods can be easily implemented to alleviate pain and fear during intravenous cannulation in children.

This study was conducted to find out the effect of body weight on Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) in adolescent school children from a rural area in South India. The study population was 347 school-going adolescent children in the age group of 13 to 15 years attending a private school in a rural area. Obesity is increasing worldwide at an alarming rate in both developed and developing countries. Childhood obesity can lead to increased airway resistance and respiratory muscle dysfunction as a result of excess fat deposition. One of the major health problems is respiratory disorder induced by obesity especially in childhood. Central obesity carries more health risks compared to total obesity. Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) is a very good indicator of central obesity. Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) is accepted worldwide as the objective indicator of ventilatory capacity and is helpful for the diagnosis of respiratory illness. Several studies have shown that PEFR is lower in individuals with obesity. We planned this study to screen for pulmonary function in school going children and to assess the increased body weight in these rural adolescent school children.

The need to address issues of cultural and ethnic diversity in health professions' education has been suggested as a means to improve the quality of care and reduce disparities in health care. “Quilombolas” are the descendants of enslaved Africans that maintain their ancestors culture, livelihood, and religious traditions. They commonly live in rural areas with low availability of basic infrastructure and limited access to health care. The elective module for undergraduate health courses with the subject "Cultural Competence in Health Care for Quilombola Women" was implemented, being the first discipline in Brazil to address the study of cultural competence with Quilombo remnant populations. The program inserts the students in the process of a collective prenatal care service involving health professions students from Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), and a multidisciplinary team with anthropological and educational resources on history and culture of African-Brazilian communities. In 2017, the project was one of six winners of the competition "Innovation Laboratory on Social Participation in Integral Care to Women's Health" being a successful case in the area of vulnerability and equity in women's lives and health.

"Private donors -- many of whom have gained unprecedented personal wealth in recent years -- dread the endless cycle of fundraising pitches. While they might aspire to do world-changing work through their philanthropy, there isn’t a ready market for breakthrough ideas that they can tap into. So, it’s no surprise that many with the means and the heart to give big end up doing less than they dream of doing. And it’s why some of the world’s best-positioned change-makers, both doers and funders, feel forced to give up on their biggest dreams, and the possibility of creating truly audacious change is left underexplored."

The Audacious Project

Dear Reader,

Across the globe there has been a rapid rise in the number of social sector innovators and entrepreneurs who want to find innovative ways to solve, or move the needle on, society’s problems. They are increasingly deploying the methods of business and private capital, if that helps them to do so. However, “despite the growing interest and commitment by stakeholders, there exists a gap between funders and Social Purpose Organizations (SPOs)...the common feedback is a struggle by funders to identify the right SPOs.”1

In Asia, “while governments have a vital role to play, it is increasingly the private sector that is stepping up to tackle the challenges of inequality and poverty.” To address these challenges, AVPN is leading a regional strategy by convening a diverse group of social investors and providing them with a platform to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing. The Deal Share Platform reinforces AVPN’s work to increase the flow of financial, intellectual, and human capital towards greater social impact in the sector. We find this strategy confirmed by other international markets that are creating spaces of encounter for academia, government, the private sector, and civil society dialogue to enable collaboration and the development of new cross organizational investment models. Internationally, we see the need for new spaces led by social enterprises that seek a community of practice with their peers to share sector-based knowledge concerning evaluation, finances, funding, and sponsors; hiring and diversity; and mentorship from those enterprises that have achieved scale and offer transparent spaces to share their models with interested investors.

In addition, actors in the Social Innovation and Enterprise industry are concluding that social innovation and social enterprise, while achieving better social impact goals, need to engage in the world of public policy and systems change. Although social innovation and enterprise are sparking change, large-scale change often can only be achieved through national, state, and local policy changes that embrace innovation and new social sector models. Social Enterprises need to be Social Capital Agents as they are motivated by social good and are there for the long-term. They foster, formulate, perform, and evaluate society’s policies that are in the furtherance of public good.

The current status is evident, and though difficult, a path forward has been laid out. By creating spaces of encounter for academia, state, the private sector, and civil society the next steps towards more sustainable and innovative models and necessary policy change are crystal clear.

We hope you read the articles (highlighted below) in this publication to gain a sense of the promise and future of Asia’s evolving Social Sector.

Article SummariesThe Ecosystem of Asia in 2018

Despite the growing interest in social investments in Asia, there exists a resource disconnect between funders and Social Purpose Organizations (SPOs). To this end, AVPN was established to foster multi-sector collaborations for social investments in Asia through convening engagements, including the Deal Share and our annual AVPN conference. Through these engagements, it is evident that there is immense potential for different types of resource providers and SPOs to work closely together to deliver social impact. While governments have a vital role to play, it is increasingly the private sector that is stepping up to tackle the challenges of income inequality and poverty. In this article, we explore how resource providers are building multi sector collaborations with SPOs, and the role that AVPN plays in fostering these partnerships.

The Mumbai Marathon (TMM) is India’s biggest philanthropy platform. Over the years, through a carefully managed charity structure, the event has been built as an enabler for hundreds of nonprofits to build relationships and raise funds for their causes. During its 15-year history, the TMM has raised above 230 Crores (USD 35.4 million) for 564 nonprofits. Annually, the event raises above Rs 34 Crores (USD 5.28 million) and with a 4.3 percent fundraising cost, it is the most effective and efficient fundraising platform for NGOs. As the event’s philanthropic partner, United Way Mumbai has three objectives for participating non-profits: 1.) Help the non-profits raise funds from the event in an impartial, fair, and cause neutral manner; 2.) Build the capacities of the non-profits through processes, training, sharing practices, and continuous support.; and 3.) Increase visibility of the causes and facilitate the building of relationships between donors and the non-profit. This article provides insight on how the TMM event has evolved into a win-win platform and a key enabler of relationships between non-profits and potential donors, fundraisers, and corporate supporters.

The OneSky Early Learning Center (ELC) in Da Nang, Vietnam is the first of its kind -- a demonstration center for best practices in early childhood care and education (ECCE) for the children of factory workers. Built in collaboration with Vietnam’s Department of Education and Training, the ELC serves as a hub for a multi-pronged model designed to provide early childhood care and education, as well as home-based daycare provider training, parenting classes, and online learning opportunities. ELC is helping care and educate more than 10,000 children under the age of seven whose parents labor in the Hoa Khanh Industrial Zone's factories. In this article, the key factors that have contributed to the successful launch of OneSky for all children's Factory Model are examined.

There are more than 600 million betel chewers across Asia. Most betel chewers are low-income and spend a significant proportion of their household income on betel quid (7.5-10 percent on average). Chewing betel causes a wide-range of serious oral health issues, from severe staining and sensitivity, to chronic inflammation, to a pre-malignant inflammatory disease called Oral Sub Mucous Fibrosis, and even oral cancer. Ko Shwe Ventures has developed the world’s first affordable oral health care products specifically targeted towards betel chewer health issues. In Myanmar there are more than 150,000 betel shops that rely almost entirely on the sale of betel, and Ko Shwe Ventures is using its products to improve the incomes of betel sellers, by supporting diversification away from total reliance on betel sales. To date. Ko Shwe has built a network of more than 6,000 retailers that reach more than one million betel chewers per day.

In India, rural populations face difficulties in obtaining accurate and affordable healthcare. Simple diagnostic testing can be difficult to obtain, with patients needing to travel long distances and spending significant resources to attain help. Biosense, a company founded in India, provides increased access, convenience, and affordable diagnostic solutions through low-cost and low-resource, point-of-care diagnostic tools. In order to more accurately diagnose and combat anemia, Biosense developed a pioneering product, the ToucHb. The ToucHb is a non-invasive test for anemia that measures hemoglobin levels in mothers and children living in low-resource areas without the use of a needle. Biosense has also developed several other core product offerings, including uChek, a routine urinalysis and microalbuminuria device; and SYNC, a diabetes-screening device that enables self-monitoring of blood glucose levels. Biosense uses these products, as well as key relationships with prominent health institutions, to have a large impact on the delivery of affordable healthcare screening for low-income patients.

Invest for Wellness (i4We), incubated by the Catalyst Group, is a self-funded, primary health care innovation, which combines health and wealth interventions, and focuses on wellness for the poor in an affordable, quality assured, and scalable way. The program ensures local primary care for members, navigates them through a range of existing secondary and tertiary providers (where required), and uses a blended financing model. This article explores the i4We model that combines medical, behavioral, and social science with an appropriate mix of technology and health financing. i4We is currently delivered in four settings including urban, rural, factories, and sex workers’ collectives. With five revenue streams, comprised of interest spread on inter-lending among members, the sale of health products, fees for citizenry services, and the sale of insurance and direct sponsorship of ultra-poor families’ health. These along with a start-up capital grant ramp of three to five years enables i4We to break even and be self-sufficient.

Government intervention is traditionally associated with grants funding to support plant equipment and other infrastructure upgrades. In the State of Victoria, the government's environmental program delivery agency, Sustainability Victoria, is implementing new models of intervention to support the development of the resource recovery sector and minimize diversion to landfills and maximize resource recovery. These new approaches involve both “soft” actions, facilitation and support services, and "hard" actions, financial support. Combined, these new efforts are working specifically to support the early-stage, feasibility component of the project pipeline, readying projects for the investment community to engage and apply skills to help realize needed investments in resource recovery.

Teach A Class Foundation is India’s first funding platform for teachers, which aims to harness the enthusiasm of motivated teachers to improve learning outcomes in school. We created a platform where teachers from low-income schools across India can access high-quality tools and resources for their classrooms by applying for funding online. Teach A Class Foundation is currently on a mission to connect 50,000 teachers and 50 million students to donors, enabling teachers to inspire their students, keep them engaged during class, and help them stay in school.

In rural regions of Cambodia, the majority of households lack access to clean and safe water sources. The use of untreated water puts families at serious risk of contracting dangerous waterborne diseases. Khmer Water Supply Holding (KWSH) works to address this issue by providing clean drinking water directly to households in-need throughout rural and semi-rural regions of Cambodia in a scalable and efficient manner. The company operates a consolidated portfolio of small-scale piped water systems (PWS), which are micro-networks that cover the entire water value chain from source to consumer households. Each individual network consists of a filtration system, ground well and water tower for storage, and underground piping that connects to end user households. The service arrives at a lower cost to consumers than alternative water sources, with significant convenience and improved status. KWSH’s consolidated business model allows the company to implement high operational standards across its PWS, leverage commercial debt, and scale each PWS to reach more households.

The burden of malnutrition in India is increasing and currently accounts for 39 percent of the world's 146 million malnourished children. United Way Mumbai’s (UWM) fight against malnutrition endeavors to empower family members and caregivers to stop the cycle of malnutrition through a community-centric approach. Leveraging existing community infrastructure and resources by partnering with government is a critical step in this direction. UWM’s program ensures that nutrition supplements are acceptable, accessible, and affordable for the community. Through home based interventions and counseling, parent capacity is built to provide an enabling environment for undernourished children. Cultural context and community platforms are used to provide key messages on nutrition, maternal and child care, health, and hygiene. Moreover, emphasis is placed on building community support to enable the practice of related behavioral changes that complement these messages. UWM works to ensure its impact is sustained by working with frontline health workers to continue service delivery. All of these interventions are undertaken in an integrated manner to create an enabling environment for the overall development of undernourished children, and not to simply feed these children which would only address one aspect of this complex issue.

When we talk of creating and sustaining millions of jobs in India, the potential of agriculture as a sector and smallholder farmers as a key constituency cannot be ignored. About 100 million smallholder farmers employ themselves in their farms, and provide employment to their own family members and other individuals. Yet, most are still poor. Smallholder agriculture in its current form is unviable; factors that limit them are nearly countless in number and variety. With marginal landholding combined with poor soil quality, depleting water tables, and limited access to many inputs and services, it is difficult for small farmers to climb out of poverty with their existing portfolio. Entry into new commodities is fraught with production risk, market risk, and challenges around accessibility/cost of capital. The solutions that exist are in silos, including many of the large-scale government programs. The fragmented ecosystem is limiting the scale and sustenance of the support to smallholders. 3Fold is working to change this dynamic by building wealthy, resilient, and responsible farmers -- by helping to make them successful entrepreneurs and sustained job creators thereby increasing their income threefold. 3Fold focuses on entrepreneurship orientation to enable the potential of these farmers, and to encourage impact. They address key gaps affecting farmers including the lack of integrated services (end-to-end), the need for diversified options (value add to farm and off-farm), augmentation of “integrators/activators at field level” and “technology,” and the establishment of a sustainable ecosystem at a cluster level that enables collaborative actions for collective impact.

When Pact, a global nonprofit founded in 1971 and based in Washington, D.C., first invested in innovation in the fall of 2013, they looked to determine whether they could institute a dedicated innovation team to source and win unrestricted funding for concepts from across Pact’s country and project staff. The nuanced and complex nonprofit system required a thoughtful, systems-level approach to achieve these efforts. With critical local staff already prioritized to projects and without local-level organic, enabling environments for testing and experimentation, success for innovation at Pact was a journey. This article explores how Pacts’ success went beyond dollars and awards, and was focused on targeting and transforming its culture and processes.

This article will explore the experience of Acceset’s founder in building this social enterprise and examine the relevance of the lean start-up methodology in relation to the challenges of developing the company. Acceset aims to build bridges to help individuals suffering from mental health concerns accept care by empowering them with technology and support services to reset their own lives and assist others who have similar experiences.

#Selfies4School is an innovative collaboration with Vodafone India, Breakthrough that launched a massive digital campaign, using the popular mobile phone trend of taking selfies, to engage people in a dialogue on early marriage and school dropout among Indian girls. People were invited to send in their own selfies to show solidarity with the campaign -- to keep girls in school. Vodafone promised to send 10 girls to school for every selfie received through a monetary contribution. The campaign was a resounding success, raising $542,555 USD that ensured 58,000 girls would remain in school and not drop out. The campaign received extensive media coverage, as well as live and online events, enabling #Selfies4School to meet its objective of bringing the issue of early marriage into mainstream public discourse.

This initiative stemmed from a strong desire to participate in improving the quality of Indonesia’s human resources. High-quality human resources play an important role in ensuring a nation’s sovereignty. Currently, Indonesia’s Human Development Index (HDI) is low, we rank 113 out of 188 countries. Of a population of 262 million, about 140 million people live on an income of IDR 20.000 ($1.50 USD) per day, while 19.4 million people suffer from malnutrition (UNDP 2015: Human Development Report). With the knowledge and experience of more than 12 years in maternal and women’s healthcare, we contribute and participate in empowerment through the first 1,000 days of life. We map out the ecosystem to facilitate wider promotion of preventive healthcare service delivery through information, education, and empowering individuals with technology. We collaborate with regulators and doctors (specialists) for the command center and to develop the mothers and midwifery communities powered by the Ibu Sehati and Bidan Sehati Application. In addition, we utilize the telemedicine-based medical device, TeleCTG, to assist in diagnosing fetal wellbeing and distress, all under one database platform for better Antenatal Care and labor management tracking and monitoring.